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Posted By: redguitars File Converter-MP3 to Wave Files - 11/18/10 09:40 PM
Hi all,
What's the best way to convert Mp3 files to Wave? I have Mp3 albums that are live performances and making an Audio CD puts GAPS between each track.
When I play the Mp3 Album on my portable Mp3 Player or with WMP everything is seamless.
I read that converting Mp3s to wave files you can make a gapless CD.
So far everything I've read says you cannot make a gapless CD from Mp3s, you have to convert them to Wave files first.

Any advice would be appreciated,
Wayne,
Posted By: Rachael Re: File Converter-MP3 to Wave Files - 11/18/10 11:03 PM
Gaps are a function of the software that burns CDs. Typically, it is 2 seconds. I don't know which software you are using to burn the CD but check the options - you may be able to change this. Some players have the ability to make the CD sound gapless. I bet your MP3 player and WMP is doing this for you. WMP's option is called crossfading.

No need to convert anything to WAV, the software does that for you when burning a CD. Plenty of burners out there if you search the web. One is http://www.cdburnerxp.se/help/Intro/cdburnerxp which supports gapless burning.

R
Posted By: Matt Finley Re: File Converter-MP3 to Wave Files - 11/18/10 11:19 PM
There are physical gaps of 2 seconds, as Rachael said, which are a requirement of the Red Book standard for CD burning. If you do not use them, you might be able to burn the CD, but it might not play on some players.

Then there are logical gaps. Some CD burning software allows you to place track markers wherever you like, so you can go from track to track even if there is no break in the music.
Posted By: rharv Re: File Converter-MP3 to Wave Files - 11/19/10 12:12 AM
You can open the mp3 in Realband and export to wave, if that helps.
Clickey route would be Track- Save track to file (after opening the mp3 and highliting the track of course)
Not much easier of a way to convert than that!

I'm old enough to remember when you could right-click an audio filename and convert the file on your desktop or in windows explorer.. but that's not so common anymore.
Posted By: Mac Re: File Converter-MP3 to Wave Files - 11/19/10 01:21 AM
You could also open each tune back-to-back in Audacity and then save the thing as a seamless single mp3 file, then burn that to CD.


--Mac
Posted By: Don Gaynor Re: File Converter-MP3 to Wave Files - 11/19/10 03:08 AM
see why i love this place!?
Posted By: redguitars Re: File Converter-MP3 to Wave Files - 11/19/10 01:08 PM
Thanks all,
It seems there are a lot of people having this problem. Removing the 2 second gap between tracks isn't enough. Between each track there is a tiny cut. Mp3s seem to have a little extra data it writes. This make for a total cut in sound, just for a couple of miliseconds.
Everyone has a different answer and a product to sell.
I'm going to try Realband or PTPA to convert.

Most blame it on what you ripped the tracks with. I didn't rip them. I downloaded them from Amazon. I really don't care that much anymore. The album plays fine on my PC and on my Sansa Clip Mp3 player.

I'm sticking with buying the CDs from now on. This was the first Download I bought. It was cheaper, but I'm not thrilled with it.

Thanks again, Wayne,
Posted By: Rob Helms Re: File Converter-MP3 to Wave Files - 11/19/10 06:40 PM
One small side note if you buy MP3's they will always sound like MP3's, if you convert them back to wave files the lost audio that happens when you encode them to MP3 is not regained. So there is no advantage to this, since now it still is compressed in sound, but takes up more space as audio wave. It is like sanding a piece of woor to make it fit in a space, you can't unsand it.
Posted By: jford Re: File Converter-MP3 to Wave Files - 11/19/10 07:27 PM
...and if you take those converted WAVs and rip them again, you lose even more audio.
Posted By: Matt Finley Re: File Converter-MP3 to Wave Files - 11/19/10 07:42 PM
John may mean, encode the .WAV files as .MP3 again, and he's right. He may also mean take a CD of converted .WAV files and rip them to MP3, and he's right there, too.
Posted By: redguitars Re: File Converter-MP3 to Wave Files - 11/22/10 09:32 PM
What seems to work for some is converting Mp3s to wave to create a gapless CD.
No reason to rip them again. The problem is that many people have Mp3 albums of live shows. When they try to make an Audio CD from them, even with the 2 seconds gaps removed, there's always a small chop between tracks. It's very annoying.
I have Atlantic Blues Live on CD. It plays seamlessly. I ripped it to mp3 and WMF and then tried to make a CD and thier are tiny gaps.
If I do a Diskcopy, no problem. But I bought this album in Mp3 from Amazon.
Never again. I always bought the CDs. I broke my #1 rule.
Well, Live and Learn,
Thanks all, Wayne,
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